Membership & How To Join
Membership of The Awakening Network will enable you to have special linkages to what the organisation provides that are not available to non-members. However, there are many services and activities available to everyone; you do not need to become a member of The Awakening Network to take them up.
For those who are interested in joining the Network, there are several types of membership. In the beginning, the two types of membership are the most relevant to everyone. For those who wish to enter or are already involved in the Training Program, two types of training membership are of relevance.
General Membership
Anyone is welcome to apply for membership of the Network. Two types of membership are possible in the beginning: Member and Initiated Member.
You may become a member by applying for membership in the manner outlined below. No pre-requisites apply to this. You may become an Initiated Member after initiation by Ken or Elizabeth Mellor, by any designated Network person, or by doing the Mantra Meditation that is recorded and available through the Network. You may already be a Member of the Network at the point you do the meditation, or you may do the meditation and then apply for membership. Either course is open to you.
The special category of membership related to initiation into Mantra Meditation highlights the importance placed on both meditation in general and on Mantra Meditation in particular in the Network's programs. (See Our Approach > Meditation in the main menu for more information on initiation). See our Shop to purchase a recording of the Vedic Mantra Meditation that is used for the initiation.
Training Membership
The Network has two types of membership for people who have completed the necessary requirements of the Training Program. These are Practitioner Membership and MasterPractitioner Membership. To do the training, you have to join the Network and the TrainingProgram. See Training in the main menu for more details.
Membership Benefits
Members are entitled to several benefits. These include receiving regular Newsletters that contain news from within the network, meditation and life-style suggestions, helpful hints, Notes on Masterhood and other announcements; 10% discount on items, such as, cassettes, CDs and books that are sold in the shop (see Shops > Public Shop in the main menu); 10% off the cost of workshops run by official NetworkTrainers, and eligibility to apply to join the Network's Training Program. Membership also gives you access to an international network of people interested in learning, living by, sharing, or contributing to the Networks information and orientation on life. Members also have direct access to the Members' Area in the Website, entry to which requires a password.
Membership fees are A$70.00 annually. The fees are levied in March or September, according to when you join; March if you join from January and June, September if you join from July andDecember. A type of automatic payment is possible through signing, then faxing, or mailing the special Payment Authority that is appended to the Membership Application Form (see below).
Joining The Awakening Network
Joining the Network is an easy matter. All you need to do is fill in the application form available by clicking on the button at the end of this section. This will bring up a Membership Application form. You can fill this in and send it electronically, or you can print it on your printer, then fill in and, with the necessary payment, fax or post to The Awakening Network as indicated on the form.
Membership Application Click here for the membership application form.
The People Form a Network Not a Group
We, at the centre of The Awakening Network's administration, think of everyone associated with the meditation we do as part of a network. A network is a collection of people who have direct or indirect links with each other. The only necessity to be part of a network, to contribute to it with your presence, is to make the link.
There is a variety of links in the network. A primary link is established through initiation into the Mantra Meditation. We and others initiate people in person, or by tape. Other links are established through attendance at workshops and courses, through the use of any of the available recorded meditations, through course material, or other contact, such as, through this Website.
Membership of the Network is merely a more formal link between people. It is an administrative system that is designed to provide more structured contact for those who want it. It is similar with the Training Program. Joining it, formally links those interested in more structured relationship, into an educationally oriented form of contact.
This network is easy to engage with and as easy to disengage from. All anyone needs to do is to start, or stop.
We, as a network, operate differently from the way many groups operate. This does not make what we do better than them, however, only different. We do it differently because we see this as the most effective way to support the achievement of the Network's purposes.
Groups tend to have a greater emphasis on membership, on how to get in and how to get out again, on protecting group identity, on those who belong and those who do not belong, on defending the group from external threat, and other similar issues. We think that these types of issues are distractions to the main purpose of the Network network.
This is a new way of thinking for many people. Many have grown up in contexts in which group memberships, loyalties, differences and struggles, were regarded as fundamental. Many people even grew to experience themselves as the group, as if their identities were in some way primarily from the group. For example, "I am a doctor, plumber, etc.", "I am a company man/woman", or"I am a student". In line with what we have already mentioned, we think that it is much more accurate to say, "I do doctoring, plumbing etc.", "I do company work", or "I do studying". By emphasising things in the way explained, we again seek to encourage everyone to what is essential about themselves.
Similarly, because in this network, there are some quite large concentrations of people, usually located in particular areas, at times, some people in these areas begin to identify themselves with the area. "I am from the X group". When they do, they are encouraged simply to think in terms of "I usually meditate in the X area." It is more accurate, for there are no groups as such in any particular area. They are merely people collected in a network, some large, some small, some very active, some relatively inactive. So, while this network provides all the things mentioned, it does not provide anyone with an identity.
In summary, we conceive of the people associated with us and each other as a large network of people, some more or less alone, some in large concentrations (denser areas) within the network. It is an open and fluid system that continues to evolve and change. Easy to contact and easy to disengage from, it is a wonderful means of finding and providing the valuable support and contact that helps us all progress more rapidly than we would alone. It also provides the personnel to manage various aspects of the program.
If anyone needs to think of any group for any reason, it seems to us that we are best to make that group humanity as a whole. Within the group, we simply have a vast network of individuals,linked to each other in myriad ways as they get on with their lives.
(For more information on other aspects of the Network and its administration, look at "The Network" article in Our Site Service > Interesting Reading in the General Directory.)